I bought a second hand PC from a fellow at work. It is loaded with Windows 95 and came with a shrink-wrapped Windows 98 CD and booklet (an OEM version). The PC still refers to the previous owner’s preferences and has lots of his old stuff on it that we don’t need. Is there anyway of loading the new Windows 98 over the top of the existing Windows 95 version to effectively delete everything that is currently on the PC, so we can start from scratch with Windows 98? We do not have a Windows 95 CD and the fellow who we bought the PC from cannot be contacted. Can you help? (more…)

Earlier this year I sent you a question regarding my printer response time being very slow. I have discovered that this is a conflict with my Norton AntiVirus 2000. I found this by accident on the Hewlett Packard internet site where a user had the same problem. When I disable the virus scan everything runs normally fast including, I now realise, the printing function itself. I wouldn’t mind if you don’t take this request any further, but if you are aware of any fix for this conflict I would greatly appreciate your advice. (more…)

I have recently upgraded my desktop to a Pentium II, 233Mhz, 4 gig HDD, and a CD-RW with Mitsumi software. I have 2 printers installed, an Epson Stylus 800 and a Canon BJC-7000, which I can select as required. When working with the CD-RW program my Canon BJC-7000 Bubble Jet does not work as it should printing art work. I downloaded the latest printer driver off the web, for Windows 98, but this does not work at all. The status monitor screen tells me that the printer is not responding and I get an ‘error writing to LPT1′. The printer LPT1 port properties screen shown no conflict. I have re-installed the old printer driver to keep this printer working. Can you help? (more…)

I purchased a laptop computer about three months ago with Word 97 already installed. I create a lot of documents in Word and I have found that when I open documents created in the last six weeks or so and then close them without altering them, a prompt comes up asking whether I want to save the changes even though there aren’t any. Documents created before that time close without the prompt appearing. I also have a desktop computer loaded with Word 2000. Identical documents are present on that computer but the prompt mentioned above does not appear when closing provided no alterations are made. The only thing I can think of is that, about six weeks ago, I installed Via Voice and linked it to Word 97. It is present on the laptop but not the desk top. Could this be causing the problem even though it is not open when I use Word 97? One other mysterious thing: when I close Word 97 on the laptop it asks me whether I want to save changes to aware97.dot. I have used Word 97 on other systems and have found no reference to aware97.dot. I have searched the Internet and found no reference to aware97.dot. What is this file and how can I get rid of that prompt? (more…)

After installing and uninstalling several programs recently, I find I now have no reaction from the ‘Windows Messaging’ program bar off the ‘Start’ menu. On looking on the ‘Add/Remove Programs’ list in the ‘Control Panel’ I notice that ‘Windows Messaging Update 1′ which once appeared there has also been deleted along with the ‘Inbox’ icon that was once on the desktop. Any advice on how to re-instate Windows Messaging, if possible, would be greatly appreciated. I am running Windows 98 SE. (more…)